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Bisher Amin Khalil al-Rawi
| place_of_birth = Baghdad, Iraq | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 906 | group = | alias = | charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention | penalty = | status = | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi ( , ) is an Iraqi citizen, who became a resident of the United Kingdom in the 1980s.documents (.pdf) from Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal Until March 30, 2007 he was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 906. The Department of Defense reports that Al Rawi was born on December 23, 1960, in Baghdad, Iraq. Bisher contends that he was on a business trip to Gambia with his friend and business associate, Jamil al-Banna, when he was arrested by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency on arrival at Banjul airport on November 8, 2002. He was turned over to U.S. authorities, who transported him to Bagram Airbase, where he helped Moazzam Begg prepare meals and taught an Afghan detainee how to use a toothbrush.,Begg, Moazzam, "Enemy Combatant", 2006 and from there to Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. contends that Bisher is being held under the suspicion that he has links with al-Qaeda. Combatant Status Review Al Rawi was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007 A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. Al Rawi's memo accused him of the following: documents (.pdf) from Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - mirror - pages 2-84 * The detainee is associated with al Qaida: * The detainee provided harbor in London, United Kingdom to a known al Qaida fugitive named Abu Qatada. * The detainee assisted Abu Qatada by locating an apartment where Abu Qatada hid from British authorities. * Abu Qatada has strong links to senior al Qaida operatives and facilitated the travel of individuals to an al Qaida guesthouse located in Pakistan. * Abu Qatada is a known al Qaida operative who was arrested in the United Kingdom as a danger to national security. * In addition to helping Abu Qatada evade British authorities, the detainee transferred funds between branches of the Arab Bank at Abu Qatada’s direction in 1999 or 2000. * In November 2002, the detainee was arrested in Gambia after arriving from the United Kingdom and was later transferred to U.S. custody in Bagram, Afghanistan. Witnesses Al Rawi requested seven witnesses. Legal Sufficiency Review (.pdf) from page 6 of Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Tribunal's President had initially ruled that all the witnesses were irrelevant. Unclassified summary of basis for Tribunal decision (.pdf) from page 12 of Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal During the course of Al Rawi's testimony he decided that the testimony of Alex, Matthew and Martin was relevant after all. He directed the Tribunal's Recorder to locate them. The Tribunal's Recorder was unable to locate them. The reason the President changed his mind is redacted. Testimony Al Rawi's testimony contained many redacted sections. MI5 informant Following the partial compliance of the Department of Defense with Justice Jed Rakoff's court order to release documents from detainees' Combatant Status Review Tribunals many newspapers repeated that Al-Rawi was an informant for Britain's counter-intelligence agency, MI5. Britain will ask U.S. to hand over Guantanamo detainee, Duluth News Tribune, March 27, 2006Courted as Spies, Held as Combatants: British Residents Enlisted by MI5 After Sept. 11 Languish at Guantanamo, Washington Post, April 2, 2006 Comfort items One of Al Rawi's lawyer's Brent Mickum, described how comfort items were withheld from Al Rawi. Al Rawi toilet paper ration was fifteen sheets a day. However, when he tried using sheets of toilet paper to block out the 24 hours of light in his cell, his toilet paper ration was withheld. When Al Rawi was subject to extremes of temperature, and was kept in a very cold cell, his prayer rug was confiscated when he tried to use it as a blanket. Repatriation request The Guardian reported, on April 20, 2006, that the British Foreign Office formally requested that Al Rawi be freed to return to Britain.Straw demands release of man with MI5 links from Guantánamo, The Guardian, April 20, 2006UK appeals for release of 'informer' from Guantanamo, Islamic Republic News Agency, April 20, 2006 On October 3, 2006 The Times reported that the United States had agreed, in confidential talks in June 2006, to return all nine of the British residents held in Guantanamo—but only under stringent conditions.Britain refused US offer to return Guantanamo detainees, The Times, October 3, 2006 The conditions the U.S. stipulated included round the clock surveillance, and the UK government considered the condition too expensive. UK, U.S. at odds on threat from Guantanamo inmates, Washington Post, October 3, 2006 According to The Times: :Although the men are accused of terrorist involvement, British officials say that there is not enough evidence to justify the level of surveillance demanded by the US and that the strict conditions stipulated are unworkable and unnecessary. ''The Times reports that the UK government was only interested in the return of Al Rawi, because of his cooperation with MI5. Release On Thursday March 29, 2007 UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced that the UK Government had negotiated al-Rawi's return from Guantanamo. According to the Associated Press Beckett issued a statement to Parliament which said: :""We have now agreed with the U.S. authorities that Mr. al-Rawi will be returned to the U.K. shortly, as soon as the practical arrangements have been made, This decision follows extensive discussions to address the security implications of Mr. Al-Rawi's return." Beckett's announcement didn't say anything about al-Rawi's traveling companion Jamil al-Banna, or the other remaining former UK residents who remain held in Guantanamo. Nor did she announce an exact return date. Al-Rawi's home, in Britain, is in Beckett's constituency. Al-Rawi had been released by April 3, 2007. According to the ''New Zealand Herald he said: :"I am delighted to be back in England, with my family. After four years in Guantanamo Bay, my nightmare is finally at an end. As happy as I am to be home though, leaving my best friend, Jamil el-Banna, behind in Guantanamo Bay makes my freedom bitter-sweet. Jamil was arrested with me in the Gambia on exactly the same unfounded allegations, yet he is still a prisoner..." Civil suit On August 1, 2007 Bisher al Rawi joined a civil suit filed under the United States' Alien Tort Statute, with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union. Al Rawi was joined with four other men, Abou Elkassim Britel Binyam Mohamed, Ahmed Agiza and Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah. References External links * 'I helped MI5. My reward: brutality and prison' ''The Guardian, 29 July 2007 * UN Secret Detention Report (Part Two): CIA Prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq Andy Worthington, June 16, 2010 * A letter to the Times regarding Moazzam Begg and Amnesty by Bisher al-Rawi Andy Worthington, February 11, 2010 * How MI5 had me kidnapped and thrown into CIA's Dark Prison Mail Online July 28, 2007 * Tortured, humiliated and crying out for some justice, The Guardian, January 12, 2005 * UK's 'forgotten' Cuba detainees, BBC, 25 January 2005 Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Iraqi extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Iraqi Muslims Category:British people of Iraqi descent Category:People from Baghdad Category:Iraqi immigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released